The name Shurpanakha conjures up an image of a demoness in people's minds. In the Ramayana, she is shown as Ravana's sister, who, after meeting Rama and Lakshmana, sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to the abduction of Sita and the destruction of Ravana. But the story of Shurpanakha is much deeper and more interesting than this.
While Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana were living in the forest during their exile, Shurpanakha set eyes on Rama and became infatuated with him. In her desire to possess Rama, she courted him, but when Rama rejected her, she proposed to Lakshmana. Lakshmana rejected her advances and humiliated her by cutting off her nose. Angered by this, Shurpanakha informed her brother Ravana, leading to Ravana planning to kidnap Sita.
According to the story, Shurpanakha also had a grudge against Ravana. She had a love marriage with her husband Vidyutjiv, who was the commander of a king named Kalkakeya. When Ravana set out on a campaign to conquer the whole world, he killed Vidyutjiv in battle. When Shurpanakha came to know about this, she was deeply saddened and cursed Ravana that he would be destroyed because of her. This feeling of revenge pushed her towards the important events of Ramayana.
During the time of Ramayana, Shurpanakha was known as a demoness, but before that she was an Apsara in Indra's court, named Nayantara. Nayantara had fascinated Indra with her beautiful dance and attractive eye gestures. Once Indra sent Nayantara to earth to break the penance of sage Vajra. The sage's penance was disturbed due to Nayantara's beauty, due to which he got angry and cursed her to become a demoness.
After the curse, Nayantara asked the sage for a way to be freed. The sage said that she would be freed from this curse only when she helps the Lord by meeting Rama in Satyuga. Thus, Nayantara was reborn as Shurpanakha, and she provoked Ravana to a war, leading to Lord Rama's destruction of Ravana.
To get rid of the curse, Shurpanakha worshipped Lord Shiva for ten thousand years on the banks of the Pushkar River. Pleased with her penance, Lord Shiva granted her a boon. According to this boon, in the 28th Dwapar Yuga, when Shri Ram took the Krishna avatar, he married Shurpanakha as Kubja and cured her hump. Thus, Shurpanakha got her old beautiful form of Nayantara back. The story of Shurpanakha is not the story of an ordinary demoness. This story is of love, revenge, penance, and liberation. The character of Shurpanakha teaches us that there is a deep story hidden in every human being's life, which we can understand properly only after knowing it.
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